“Maybe I am not going to do either,” Scott said quietly, and with the faintest trace of a bow he rode away on his trail patrol.
“Fool,” muttered the cowboy as he watched Scott out of sight. “He has plenty of nerve, but Jed will get his goat. Then maybe Heth will go in and we will have peace for a while.”
Scott was awakened the next morning by the rattle of dishes and found that Heth had breakfast all ready to go on the table. Whatever other shortcomings might be attributed to the guard he could hardly be called lazy. He never objected to any job that was assigned to him, was continually busy when around the camp, was up early and came in late. Scott recognized all this and realized the perfect knowledge that the man seemed to have of every phase of the forest work. He bounded out of bed thoroughly ashamed of himself.
“Why didn’t you call me?” Scott exclaimed.
Heth seemed somewhat surprised at the irritated tone. “Breakfast wasn’t ready,” he replied simply.
“I did not mean it that way,” Scott replied, a little taken back, “but I want to do my share of the work around here. I intended to help you get breakfast, but the high altitude seems to make me sleep like a hammer.”
“Gets them all that way when they first come up,” Heth replied pleasantly. “Might as well sleep it out. I wake up anyway and don’t mind getting breakfast. I’m used to it.”
Heth’s pleasant manner was so different from his grouch of the morning before that Scott felt even more ashamed of himself and wondered if he had misjudged the man. “Well, I’ll try to make up for it later,” he sputtered through the cold spring water, and as he dried the few breakfast dishes he felt happier than he had at any time since he first met Heth.
“How does the big black go?” Heth asked. “Have any trouble with him?”
“No,” Scott replied, warming up on the subject of his horse, “he behaved splendidly; but I had a funny experience yesterday.” And he explained in detail how the strange horseman had attempted to steal Jed. He kept quiet about the rest of the conversation.
Heth listened excitedly and did not let on that he had seen the horseman afterward and heard his version of the story. “Maybe he was trying to catch him for you,” Heth said. “No one ever thought that anybody could ride that horse and they all expect him to kill you before you have had him very long.”